Matthew 12:28

“If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

I, as a product of Western “enlightened” education, find that I have to work hard to try to imagine the kind of spiritual warfare that Matthew describes. There is simply no place in the current secular world-view that shaped me for thoughts like this.  Jesus saw this world as it actually is – a struggle between two kingdoms, that ruled by Satan and that ruled by the Triune God. This clash of kingdoms reveals what is happening, the fading kingdom of Satan is no match for the kingdom of God. Victory is assured.

This clarifies Jesus comment, “If I drive out demons by the Spirit of  God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Demons and demonic forces rule in Satan’s kingdom. If Jesus can disarm those demons, cast them out, so to speak, then that kingdom can and will ultimately be destroyed.

These thoughts do not come easily for our secular culture that has partially shaped us. Most people in our culture have never even tried to understand the kind of spiritual world Jesus is talking about.

For some years I tried to convince myself that Jesus did not actually believe in the kind of world he talked about, but was simply using their “mistaken” world-view to describe his kingdom.   The more sober approach, the correct one, I suggest, is that Jesus is dealing with life as it actually is!!